Don't night ride? You should consider it.

Just back from a night ride. I decided to take it easy (recovering from a brutal and hot Jolpin ride the day prior), take photos and share the awesomeness of night time mountain biking.

It was nearly 5 years of riding before I became aware of night riding, thinking there's no way you can mob single track at night, right? After another year considering it, I got a light and I drove up to the trailhead. All alone and gearing up, it's cold, damp, crazy dark and now I'm asking myself what the eff am I doing, but I manned up. Now night riding for about 5 years, It's a completely different kind of riding that pushes you in different ways. It's also liberating not to be confined to just daylight hours, able to roll up at the trail at 8 or 9pm. Of course it's cooler too.

Instead of vast landscape of the day, the night riding environment is all about your monochrome bubble of light. You have a laser focus, just concentrating on what you can see in front of you. Trails you ride during the day, are familiar but feel very different in your small sphere of light. Remarkably you can ride nearly as fast as you can in the day. The temperature varies as the cool air wafts up from the valleys. Careful to not let the little animals rustling through the bushes get to you. All alone on the trail can get your mind freaking if you don't reign it in. Lots creatures are out, rabbits scurrying everywhere, and you occasionally startle a deer. I've even been sprayed by a skunk and now I no longer fear being eaten by a mountain lion.

I typically ride my local trails solo, but wouldn't recommend it for safety reasons (I have cell coverage and my family knows where I'm at)

I love ending my day with a late hard ride, beer, shower and bed...

I started with a $120 Serfas 250 helmet mount then worked my way up to a better lighting system. I have Magic Shine helmet and handlebar lights now (thanks ElCap for the hookup). There are plenty of threads here about lighting options.

Tonights trip:



Dropping into an abyss of black


Getting a spider web across the face is a regular occurrence (not sure if it's a night thing, but it only happens to me then)


You can faintly hear civilization in the distance (overlooking San Juan Capistrano).


The thing I spend too much money on.





The beginning of a horror movie?


Friends I saw. Actually the mouse was my friend, the others are not.


An previous ride with the kiddos on San Juan Trail.

 

i love night riding! but i only ride Fully loop. I wish oaks was open for night rides but a place like that would be awesome!

 

What handkebar mounted light are you using? Looks bright!

 

Spider stick!!! Strap a 2ft stick to your bars, and angle it forward (CHARGE!) so that it snags the web before your face contacts. Can be problematic if veggie tunnels exist. Better for well-trimmed trails.

Also, depending on how the climb is, lights-out is very nice. May Canyon in Sylmar (http://goo.gl/maps/5UTz6) is a great night ride, usually the city light is enough for the climb unless it's a foggy night.

 

I'm bombing down tight, overgrown ST and don't think the stick would last or it empale a hiker or myself. spider webs in the face suck, but the sensation of something crawling on you is quickly overshadowed by concentrating on the trail.

 

Cool! I've done a couple of night ride this year such as Turnbull and the Luge. I'm interested in doing more every Wednesday starting October. The times I plan on going will be around 630-730 depending on what everyone else would like to start. Please let me know when you'll be going and if you're interested in joining the Wednesday rides in October. As for the Wednesday rides in October everyone is welcome to join us.

 

Nice! I love night riding too. BTW, the trail in the pictures look familiar to me. Is that at DP Hills?

 

Nice Post... Yup getting to be that time of year!

 

Night riding is great and tons of fun. Full moon no light rides are best....nothing like riding only to the light if the moon.

Agree......take a trail that you know during the day, like every hump, bump, rock, rut, root.....ride it at night and you will learn that you don't know it as well as you think you do. Plus the lights make drops, rocks, jumps look bigger.

Critters in the bushes sound much larger than thy actually are. Rabbits and mice sound like deer and coyotes....plus since your eyesight isn't as good, it seems as though your hearing is amplified.

However we do enough night riding during the winter that I look forward to spring time when I can finally put the lights away and ride in the daylight.


Just remember to night ride responsibly.....ride only in places that night riding is legal.....county parks are not legal.

 

I love night riding! I am a wimp for the heat so being able to ride when it is much much cooler is a huge bonus. As a grad student at UCI I have a very busy schedule and finding time to ride during the day can be a challenge, but nights on the other hand....it opens up a whole new world of riding. Especially being in southern california where the weather is rideable ~360 days out of the year, being able to (legally) ride at night rocks.

We have done some pretty late (for me) rides, returning to the trailhead as late as ~2am. The only thing that stops us now is knowing that in-n-out closes at 1:30 so if we want our post ride burgers we need to get back in time.

Has anyone here done any epic long night rides in the OC? I have always thought it would be super cool to do something like the counting coup/vision quest rides all at night.

 

How many people who night ride have had close encounters with the burrowing owls?

 

We have a small group that does weekday night rides a couple times a month. B*star-Motorway is one of our regular routes and the first part of CC/VQ. We are doing Whiting/STT/OldCamp tonight ( leaving early enought that we are out of whiting before sunset) and I have also done Maple Springs/MD/Motorway at night. I would be up for Harding/Peaks/HolyJim loop starting at the Wahoo's on portola later this winter, but that is a 5-6 hour, 6600Ft loop at a moderate pace.

And getting done before in-n-out closes is very important for these longer night rides.

 

Have done B*/MW a few times without lights on full moon nights.....in fact no one was even allowed to bring lights along. Super fun.

 

me and excersyt have done holy jim trabucco, and harding joplin as night rides although the latter was unintentional. Super fun!

 

Night riding is excellent but I really don't understand the closure of local parks to night riding. Maybe It disrupts the animals so I suggest a compromise...maybe open the parks a few nights a month.

 

Dude do you know how many ways I would be beat to Sunday if I went on a night ride without the $400 in lights and then took a header....crap.

Maybe on the climb but no way I would ride MD or Motorway with no lights.

 

Yeah me too,
Also the moon has to be high in the sky. We did a full moon B*star Motorway two weeks ago and while the moon was full is was very low in the sky so parts of the MD and motorway were almost pitch black.. And the light really helped when we had to fix my buddies flat 1/2 way down on Motorway. S-work renegades & motorway aren't the best combo it turns out.

 

I have yet to do a night ride, i would consider B* for my first time. Motorway is another story during day light. Im not much of a down hill rider, lack of experience. If anyone can do MW in the dark, that is impressive. MW terrain is brutal (imop), jagged rocks and such. On the other hand, not bringing lights along is bizarre, Accident do happen. Maybe an old school technique - dunno.

City light look great from the trail. Night critters are always cool to see.

 

Mario,
Next time Pat, Bobby and I do B*star/Motorway you should join us JHA said he is up for this ride later this month as well.
You are a better down hill rider than I am and nightriding IMHO can be just as easy as day riding with the right lights.
And MW is a lot of fun.

 

Not as bad as it sounds.

2 different rides.....the moon was in 2 different locations.

1st time it seemed the moon was always behind us. 2nd time it was above us, but there was also light clouds and fog so it acres like a gigantic difuser.

Worst part was actually riding back down through Silverado Canyon....no moonlight under the tree canopies.